Mariton: 2016 Blizzard
by Tim Burris, Preserve Manager
I had to use the snow blower to make space for the tractor to begin working.
A few of my friends have been reminiscing about January snowstorms this month. When the local weather person mentioned the blizzard of 2016. I went to my records to check out what I had written. Then I contacted Carole, who keeps very detailed weather journals.
The driveway finally cleared to the road. The sun is sinking low.
We received over 20 inches of snow at Mariton. It was a light snow because it was cold. The storm was windy which led to drifting, making it hard to get an accurate measurement. The snow started late on Friday, January 22nd. The snow and drifting continued all day Saturday. My work records show that I plowed all day on Sunday just to push out the driveway to the road. I had to use the tractor because it was too much for the truck to push. I have since purchased chains for the truck.
My dear wife shoveling off a flat roof. You can get a sense of the snow depth.
While I plowed the driveway, Maureen shoveled off the flat roofs on the house. She also ran the snow blower and shoveled walks.
Another photo to remind me how much snow we received.
I spent Monday and Tuesday just plowing the parking lot. Even with chains, the tractor could only push the snow so far. I got the tractor stuck several times and had to shovel and work myself out with the bucket. The front-end loader came in handy for piling up the snow. Once I had things roughed out, I “swept” the parking lots with the truck plow. I spent Wednesday cleaning up around the edges and moving snow piles back to make room for any future snow. It was an exhausting four days of work. Fortunately, we didn’t lose power.